Causal analysis of conflict in tourism in rural China: The peasant perspective

This study explores the reasons for conflict within the tourism sector in rural China. A case-oriented qualitative research method was employed, in which unstructured interviews were used as the primary data collection approach. From the perspective of rural peasant communities this study found three causes for conflict: infringement of peasants' basic rights and interests, economic motivation, and unfair treatment. A deprivation model was then generated as the explanatory tool in which local villagers' experiences of relative deprivation and contractual deprivation were explored. The combination of these two types of deprivation serves to trigger discontent and contributes to conflict. The findings of this study provide valuable insights leading to a better understanding of this complex conflict phenomenon, and they can also help policy makers to better engage communities in relation to conflict reduction and promote sustainable tourism planning and development.     

A different interpretation from Cornet's on tourism development in an ethnic minority village in China

There have been tensions as ethnic tourism develops in western China leading to various responses from local people, including resistance. Cornet discussed Dong villagers’ responses to tourism development in Zhaoxing using concepts such as livelihoods, resistance, agency, and ethnicity. This paper aims to reinterpret these responses and extend the scope of discussion through multiple case studies using primary data collected in our fieldwork. This study showed that the issues involving ethnic minority groups mentioned by Cornet commonly appear in Han areas and ethnicity is less significant in local responses to tourism development. In addition, we found that villagers have little voice in tourism development and their rights and interests are often ignored by local government. These findings have important implications for increasing our understanding of the issues arising from ethnic tourism.     

Tourism-based development in Cusco,Peru: comparing national discourses with local realities

This article qualitatively compares national-level development discourses in Peru with local perceptions of poverty and tourism practice for four rural communities of the Valle Sagrado (Sacred Valley), located just outside the ancient Inca capital of Cusco, Peru. Copestake's global designs of development (income first, needs first, and rights first) provide the framework for this comparison, linked to local accounts and on-the-ground observations from six months of field work carried out in the region in 2013. Sources of data, which were collected and initially analyzed using Rapid Qualitative Inquiry (RQI), included semi-structured interviews (N = 93), field notes from participant observation, and documents and reports from government institutions, travel companies, and community associations. Results indicate that a strong degree of overlap exists between local perceptions and income first, needs first, and rights first development discourses. However, frustrations with tourism practice reveal an underlying struggle against neoliberal economism and the ever-increasing foreign presence in the region. Findings suggest that tourism-based development outcomes may be enhanced when policies consider both agreements and contradictions between broader discourses and local views and interests, uncovering issues of power linked to the putative common sense of promoting tourism as a principal component of national development strategies.     

Vernacular house as an attraction: illustration from hutong tourism in Beijing

This paper discusses the recent experiences of vernacular house tourism in China, based on a case study of hutong tourism in Beijing. It is argued that the vernacular house could be an important cultural resource for tourism development. The theoretical implications of vernacular house tourism are examined. It is suggested that vernacular house tourism helps to communicate local cultural identity to visitors, to reduce the negative impact of modernization upon local traditions and traditional styles of houses, and to satisfy tourists' demands for greater authenticity. However, vernacular house tourism is a highly fragile type of tourism. If it is to be sustained, sound and careful planning and management is needed.     

制度增权:社区参与旅游发展之土地权利变革

社区参与旅游发展失败的原因可以归结为三个方面:权利失败、机会缺失与能力匮乏。对于后两者,研究者们已经开展了广泛的研究。而针对社区居民"无权"和"去权"的权利失败状况,学术界至今缺乏应有的关注。文章以马克思地租理论为起点,结合现代产权理论,通过对典型案例的研究,剖析了我国农村土地产权状态及其决定的旅游开发增值收益分配在理论上和现实中的矛盾性,提出了"吸引物权"这一新型的产权权利,并指出我国农村社区参与权利失败的制度性根源在于集体土地所有权受限制支配、所有权主体"虚位"和吸引物权"缺位",最后,在此基础上提出了推动中国农村社区参与旅游发展的土地权利变革之路。     

Place change and tourism development conflict: Evaluating public interest

As a set of economic activities, tourism trades on the character of special places. Conflict can emerge where local residents perceive that tourism development proposals challenge the special qualities of place, and where place meaning and attachments are compromised. A key function of government in mediating conflict is to protect public interests, yet explicit consideration of public interest in tourism development conflict is unusual. This paper argues for a reinvigoration of public interest in the mediation of tourism development conflicts. It explores the concept of public interest and how governments interpret and give meaning to it in development debates. In a case study of a cruise ship terminal proposal on the Gold Coast, Australia, the state adopted a neoliberal interpretation of public interest wherein increased global competitiveness of the destination was the overriding common good pursued. Local and diverse interests were marginalised in the debate. The paper concludes that in order to reinvigorate public interest, a public interest evaluation framework for tourism development is needed.     

Mount Stirling: The Politics of Process Failure

This paper analyses the political decision-making process associated with the attempts to develop the tourism potential of Mt Stirling in the Victorian Alps (Australia). Its concern is with the failure of policy making since 1980 to bring about a strategic economic development programme that meets the needs of the regional community for a sustainable tourism industry. Using Public Choice theory to approach the analysis of collective failure, it is possible to identify the competing interests involved in the development debate and the causes of the impasse in government decision making. The paper examines the capacity of the disparate community interests to work together to generate alternatives to the government's own proposals which had consistently failed to incorporate regional economic interests in their planning procedures. The issues exposed in this example of process failure are not confined to Mt Stirling alone. They serve, perhaps, to illustrate a broader pattern of growing alienation and conflict between regional tourism interests seeking a greater voice in determining the sustainability of their own futures, and the demands of centralised urban decision-making systems.     

民族村寨社区参与旅游开发的利益保障机制

民族村寨作为一类特殊社区,是我国乡村旅游开发的重要区域.社区参与是民族村寨旅游可持续发展的前提,而社区旅游利益的保障是社区有效参与的决定性因素.本文从旅游利益分配现状及其原因出发,基于开发的基本理念和目标提出了民族村寨社区参与旅游的利益保障机制.     

Development pattern,classification and evaluation of the tourism academic community in China in the last ten years: From the perspective of big data of articles of tourism academic journals

This paper reports findings from an analysis of 16,024 tourism academic papers published in the major social science journals of China as ranked by CSSCI, and CSCD for the period from 2003 to 2012. The paper ranks and evaluates journals and institutions related to tourism, and thus shows a comprehensive picture of the academic development in China's tourism academic research over the decade. The paper used a creative research method to discover the phenomenon and issues not previously identified by researchers and provides a sound foundation to further develop big data analytical methods in China.     

Determinants of tourism ticket pricing for ancient villages and towns: Case studies from Jiangsu,Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui provinces

Tourism in ancient villages and towns represents a typical form of heritage tourism in rural China. It has always been regarded as an effective way to promote cultural heritage protection and rural community development. However, this type of tourism involves many stakeholders with different interests and demands, which sometimes results in conflicts. In the process of protecting against heritage and tourism exploitation, tourism in ancient villages and towns can face numerous challenges. Among these is the mode of ticket pricing, which directly relates to the interests of each stakeholder, and problems of competing demands that may become the focus of disputes. Through field research and inductive analysis of the ancient villages and towns in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui provinces, four kinds of ticket pricing is identified: (a) the fully enclosed charge mode with a single-ticket ticket system for whole scenic spots; (b) the half-closed charge mode with binding ticket system for some consumption items; (c) the half-opened charge mode with limited ticket system for some self-operated scenic spots; and (d) the fully opened charge mode with a free ticket system for the whole scenic spots.By comparing the similarities and differences of typical ancient villages and towns that have adopted differing charge modes, we conclude that resource grade, local condition, tourism market factors (e.g., size, range), product orientation, business value, participation of residents and profit model are the potential influencing factors for these modes. Resource grade and regional condition are two objective factors. The remaining five factors are subjective and are connected with interests of the four main stakeholders: the tourists visiting the ancient villages and towns; external merchants; community residents; and companies that are responsible for tourism management.From the four related stakeholders' behavioral responses to different ticket charge modes, we can see that the enclosed charges will affect tourists entering the ancient villages and towns, thus impeding foreign merchants' participation and strengthening each local company's dependence on tickets. Open charges will be more convenient in allowing visitors to enter the ancient towns and villages, and will attract foreign merchants to join in and thus increase cooperation with residents. The various stakeholders therefore have an influence on ticket charge mode, and the final choice about the mode is the result of balancing their competing rights and interests. The implications of each is discussed.     

Land expropriation in tourism development: Residents' attitudinal change and its influencing mechanism

The development of tourism projects is often predicated on land expropriation. It is therefore important to understand residents' attitudes towards land expropriation and how changes in those attitudes can benefit both the land expropriation process and tourism development. Taking Wudaoliang in Sandaogou village in Hebei province as a case study, this study focuses on residents' attitudinal change by taking a longitudinal approach involving non-participant observation and 180 interviews. Critical event analysis was conducted, and a framework for modelling attitudinal change was adopted. The results show that the attitudes of rural residents towards tourism development were not static but underwent a dynamic process of change across three phases. These results suggest that residents should deepen their involvement in the land expropriation process and that information transparency can reduce social conflict, which will facilitate the sustainable development of rural tourism. The theoretical and practical contributions of this study are also discussed.     

A phenomenological explication of guanxi in rural tourism management: A case study of a village in China

Drawing on hermeneutic phenomenology in tourism studies as well as Heidegger's concept of being-in-the-world, this paper reveals how tourism can and should be done in a Chinese rural village. This research contributes a contextual interpretation of guanxi in Chinese rural tourism development through an empirical study of a traditional agricultural village in China that has been transformed through tourism development. The paper argues that for the Chinese indigenous residents who are the primary actors engaged in tourism, guanxi is, neither a Confucian political ideal nor an instrumental tool, but the specific manner in which they dwell in their place. It demonstrates how the tourist destination, landscape and managerial regulation have been modified and adapted in a guanxi way. The paper suggests that an emic understanding of guanxi and the roles it plays in tourism participants' daily life is warranted and can provide a more holistic picture of tourism development in rural China.     

Exploring the impacts of tourism on the livelihoods of local poor: the role of local government and major investors

This study identifies the impacts of tourism development on the living conditions of local poor and examines the role of local government and major investors in this process. A village in southern China was chosen as the research site. Because of tourism development, the villagers had all been relocated and initially, it was thought that their housing conditions had improved. Nevertheless, the relocated houses were later criticized as being small and of low quality. The traditional local means of livelihood also changed, from farming and fishing to mainly being employed in paid work. Yet, because of the high cost of living, the villagers' actual living standards had not greatly improved. This study claims that, since the municipal government took a developmental approach and investors followed market logic, the interests of the local poor were sacrificed to tourism development. This suggests that if tourism development is to reduce local levels of poverty, the interests of the local community should be front and center. Particularly in cases when tourism development tends to cause the transformation of local means of production, supportive initiatives and proper supervision and management strategies are needed in helping the poor adapt to new conditions.     

民族地区原住民参与旅游开发的法律赋权研究

民族地区原住民既是当地旅游活动的重要对象，又是民族文化旅游资源的创造者和传承者。但在旅游扶贫开发和运营中，由于旅游吸引物权规定的“法律真空”，缺乏法律制度保障的原住民在与开发商和政府博弈中往往被边缘化，导致经济收益偏低，却要承担旅游开发所产生的各种各样的成本，严重损害了原住民的利益。文章运用赋权与产权理论，对原住民参与旅游开发的弱势地位的核心原因进行了辨析，指出原住民参与处于“无权”或“弱权”状态是因为对旅游者最具吸引力的天然属于原住民所有的原生态民族文化旅游资源产权界定上的法律缺失，提出了加强旅游吸引物权的“确权＋流转”为主要内容的法律赋权建议，并分析了赋权后可能产生的消极影响及其防范措施。最后以石泉苗寨为例，具体剖析了法律赋权下的民族地区原住民参与旅游开发的方式与企业的经营机制，以期彻底改变原住民的地位弱势、收益偏低和参与“无话语权”的现状，增加原住民的财产性收益，缓解原住民与开发商之间的矛盾，维护民族地区的和谐稳定。     

Re-conceptualizing volunteer tourism organizations roles: A host perspective

While volunteer tourism organizations (VTOs) remain important intermediaries in the practice of volunteer tourism, questions remain on the role they play in serving the interests of host communities. This paper explores the role(s) of VTOs in a rural volunteer tourism hub in Ghana from a host community perspective using a phenomenological inquiry. An integrated framework of Critical/Institutional Analysis and Development (C/IAD) was used to examine host community experience with VTOs' role. Data was collected through focus group discussion and in-depth interviews with 43 residents of Asebu - Ghana. The study revealed that while VTOs act as facilitators and interpreters of local culture, issues of over-regulation and protectionism isolate guests from the host as well as rob some host of any meaningful socio-economic benefits and interactions.     

旅游能缓解保护地人与野生动物冲突吗?

人与野生动物冲突正成为我国自然保护地管理的显性问题,理解并寻找缓解人与野生动物冲突的方法成为重要研究问题。发展旅游被视为缓解此类冲突的重要手段,但已有研究尚未系统地评估旅游的缓解作用。本研究通过整合性综述的方法,探讨旅游能否以及如何缓解人与野生动物冲突这一问题。研究发现旅游对人与野生动物冲突的影响是多重的。对于辐射范围内的社区,旅游通过给社区带来经济利益,可以提高居民对野生动物的容忍度,从而缓解冲突。但旅游经济利益分配存在不充足、不平等和不匹配等问题,因而其缓解冲突的效应也不均衡。有些旅游活动还会产生负面生态影响,导致野生动物对人类习惯化和种群数量过度增长,进而加剧景区周边社区与野生动物冲突。本文最后建议加强对旅游的分配正义、生态影响和社会文化视角的研究。     

Human resources development for tourism in rural communities: A case study of Kerala

Considering the relative backwardness of rural areas, human resources development (HRD) seems to have a very important role in rural tourism development. However, tourism HRD in rural communities is affected by a number of drawbacks. In the absence of any significant private sector presence, especially during initial stages, the public sector need to take the initiative in equipping and empowering the local community to meaningfully participate in tourism. This paper suggests a multi‐pronged approach to educate and empower the members of the host community, the tourism industry personnel, and visitors to facilitate rural tourism development, which is sustainability‐oriented and can help localize the benefits. The experience of Kerala provides an example of how the public sector initiated HRD activities could contribute to the development of rural tourism, especially in engendering local entrepreneurial endeavors and giving tourism a higher profile. The Kerala experience represents some of the issues in HRD for rural tourism and suggests potential strategies for other rural communities involved in tourism development.     

Urban vs. rural destinations: Residents’ perceptions,community participation and support for tourism development

This paper investigates and compares the effects of residents' perceptions of the impacts of tourism on community participation and support for tourism development across urban and rural world heritage sites (WHSs). Partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), has been employed to perform the analysis. The results reveal significant differences between the effects of residents' perceptions and community participation on support for tourism development in urban and rural destinations. However, the findings did not support any differences between the effects of positive perceptions on community participation, and the indirect effects of negative perceptions on support for tourism development. This study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the urban and rural tourism and residents’ perceptions literature by comparing rural and urban WHSs residents. Furthermore, this study has a number of practical implications for the local authorities of rural and urban WHSs.     

Residents' Perceptions Toward the “Chinese Tourists' Wave” in Hong Kong: An Exploratory Study

Mainland China experienced an extraordinary progress in its economy in the past two decades which directly stimulates more outbound travels. Considering the geographical proximity and political ties between Hong Kong and Mainland China, the share of inbound tourists to Hong Kong has been, and will continuously be, largely occupied by Mainland Chinese tourists on an uprising basis. The phenomenon of the “Chinese tourists' wave”, operationalizing as the influx of tourists from Mainland China, has brought tremendous change on Hong Kong's tourism industry, economy and local community. It is, thus, of necessity to understand the perceptions and response toward this phenomenon from local residents' perspective as they are the stakeholders of local tourism. Drawing on the findings from three focus group interviews with 18 Hong Kong residents, three conventional dimensions, namely “Economic”, “Social-cultural” and “Environmental” were identified and discussed to demonstrate the local residents' perceptions toward the impact of “Chinese tourists' wave” phenomenon. Generally, residents tend to recognize the positive economic impacts as well as negative social–cultural and environmental impacts generated from this tourism phenomenon. The recommendations suggested in this study also serve as a reference for tourism authorities concerned to redress the existing problems.     

Local government intervention in tourism-driven rural gentrification: Types and interpretative framework

Exploring the role that the local government plays in tourism-driven rural gentrification has the potential to make a contribution to rethinking the influence of power mobility on local development. Using 115 in-depth interviews and non-participant observation, this study examines the local government's changes in interventions in Pingnan county, Fujian province in China. It was found that the Pingnan County Government adopted deregulated, performative, and contractual interventions as strategies in three different spatio-temporal scenarios of tourism-driven rural gentrification; the underlying logic of tourism-driven rural gentrification is the vertical and horizontal mobility of power, which is directed by the internal mechanism of “political utility-power flexibility-risk control.” This study is expected to extend the applicability of rural gentrification theory to government-dominated contexts and provide practical insights for policymakers to intervene in an adaptive and periodic manner in local socio-economic affairs, including rural tourism development.